


I'll Never Land

by Tree_no3



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers 4, Gen, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, and im sad, and ug, avengers end game, bc - Freeform, sounds wierd to me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 13:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17163203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tree_no3/pseuds/Tree_no3
Summary: “That wasn’t great for my health,” Tony commented lightly, blasting the ground under a group of hostiles, and feeling his flight stabilizers begin to wobble, “I don’t have many hit points left, not to mention, I’m really low on mana…”Tony and Rhodes complete their mission in end game, only to find a Very Nasty army for them to fight on their way back to earth. They find a ship and Tony flies him and Rhodes out of there, only, where's Rhodes?





	I'll Never Land

**Author's Note:**

> So I had this idea that Tony was stuck in space at the end of Endgame, not the beginning, causing me to come up with this idea… I might turn some of this skeleton back ground into story later, we’ll see.
> 
> There was a mission of in space that would require a good familiarity with tech. Initially no one wanted Tony to go, he was still recovering from being stabbed, but he was obviously the best choice as they didn’t know exactly what the tech they would be dealing with was. It was a 2 person mission, and there were 2 candidates to go with Tony, Rhodes and Rocket. They decided to have Rhodes go because he and Tony already knew each other so well.

The mission was not going to end this badly after how well the first half had gone, Tony simply was not going to allow it. He and Rodney had successfully messed up the system, in fact, Tony had basically turned the computer to dust after deleting all the files and tracing them to other computers, which were also promptly turned into piles of metal shards. Rodney had just watched him, and they were probably going to have a very long discussion about this later. If there was a later, Tony grimly corrected, as he was thrown sideways into a energy field which rebounded and yeeted him back to his initial position beside Rhodes.  
“That wasn’t great for my health,” Tony commented lightly, blasting the ground under a group of hostiles, and feeling his stabilizers begin to wobble, “I don’t have many hit points left, not to mention, I’m really low on mana…”  
“Not the time, Tony,” replied Rhodes. Tony made a shrugging gesture, he had been trying to keep it light, but he could do panicked and serious any time.  
“Sorry, there’s a ship of some kind over there, you see it?” He asked, before being knocked in the head by some kind of beam. He lurched forwards, unable to stop himself from falling until Rhodes grabbed his arm. Tony cried out as pain shot through his abdomen from where his stab wound had yet to fully heal. But he hadn’t fallen into the mine field below, so that was a major plus. Wind whistled past his exposed ear from where the iron man helmet had broken, and he could see the landing pad and Conveniently Open Ship drawing closer.  
“Get it going, I’m right behind you, I’ll close the ramp when I’m on” shouted Rodney, depositing Tony by the ramp. Tony was about to argue when he realised his suit was damaged to the point he might not be able to get it off. He nodded and picked his way through the plane. Finding the cockpit, Tony began to look around when a huge boom shook the plane. Panicked, he quickly identified what he assumed to be a go switch, and a screen for steering. A notification beeped on a screen with a graphic of the ramp coming up. Another explosion sounded.Tony worked with the controls, telling the ship to go, but another image of the ramp closing popped up with a red symbol on top. Tony watched the ramp, hating how slowly the thing closed, his fingers hovering over the ship controls. A loud click echoed through the ship, and the warning disappeared. Tony pushed the ‘go’ lever forwards, and placed his hands on the screen. It jumped to life, and the ship began to move.  
At first the movements were jerky, but Tony quickly got the hang of it, and piloted them the hell off that planet, breathing a sigh of relief when shots from the ground stopped rocking the ship side to side, worsening his already shaky control. He quickly took stock of what he had to do so far. Rodney wasn’t up in the cockpit yet, and therefore probably injured, but Tony decided to check on him after he engaged autopilot so he didn’t kill both of them by running into the moon. After a few false starts, one of which may have almost caused the ship to self destruct, Tony got what he believed to be autopilot going.  
He almost fell down the ladder to the cargo hold going to check on Rodney. Only, there was no Rodney, just part of the War Machine suit on the floor. Tony ran up to it, noting the crack pattern on the edges, around the joints of the neck. They were consistent with blunt force trauma from a superior metal, the chin had always been a weakness in Rodney’s armour, but this was one of Tony’s worst computer models come to life. Dried blood coated where the back of the armor's neck had broken off from the rest of the body. Rodney was undoubtedly dead, but Tony wrestled with the idea of going back for him. Rodney would have gone back for Tony, but Tony also knew Rhodney would have killed him for even thinking about returning for Rodney’s body. Not to mention Pepper, he could only die once though, so they would have to share his murder.  
Tony bowed his head, holding to the helmet as tightly as he could. The sharp edges where it had broken cut into his fingers and palms, but Tony held on anyway. Rhodes had always been there for him, no matter what and now he was just gone. No more calling in the middle of the night, about a nightmare, or a new idea. No more ‘yes I know I was supposed to do that...no, I didn't do it.’ Because Rodney was the first person to set expectations for Tony’s behavior, and no matter how much Pepper reminded him about things, Rodney would always be the one he tried to do right by. The guy had kept after him for ages, had probably thought about giving up every day, but he hadn’t, and now he wouldn’t be there to see if Tony would actually meet those standards.  
Blaring alarms interrupted Tony’s thoughts, and he tiredly looked at the screen. It seemed to display that there was some kind of leak in a tank of some sort. Tony looked outside a window, and was alarmed to see gas coming from the side of the ship. An oxygen leak, just what he needed. Tony looked down at the ruins of his suit, definitely not fit for outside repairs. He searched around the compartments of the ship, and was chagrined to find there were no identifiable space suits, little water, and even less food.  
A few days passed, and Tony realised he was probably going to die. The ship was rather low on fuel and would be drifting by the next day, he had about a week left of oxygen and despite his best efforts with rationing, he was basically out of food.  
A few more days, and Tony was out of water. He had been entertaining the idea of leaving a message for Pepper in the helmet network, and realised he would have to do so soon so his throat would not be too dry to speak. Tony pulled himself away from the view of space. It was kind of funny, he used to dream of being up here, far away from all his problems. Up in the stars. He remembered dreaming about being an astronaut, watching every televised mission closely. Now all he wanted was to go home, and stretch out on some nicely maintained grass.  
Four days later, Tony was about ready to try to boot up. Tony slouched back with relief. He had been worried he wouldn’t finish. Dying with an unfinished project, talk about worst way to go.  
Finally, light floods the empty eye sockets of the helmet. Tony leans forwards, tapping the face plate affectionately.  
“This thing on?”


End file.
